"When my friend Jim Wallis was a seminary student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School outside of Chicago, he and some of his classmates did a little experiment. They went through all sixty-six books of the Bible and underlined every passage and verse that dealt with poverty, wealth, justice, and oppression. Then one of Jim's fellow students took a pair or scissors and physically cut every one of those verses out of the Bible. The result was a volume in tatters that barely held together...So central were these themes to Scripture that the resulting Bible was in shambles...Jim's Bible was literally full of holes. Hole (n.) - a hollowed place in something solid"
-The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard StearnsThe VanderNerd in me has been utterly giddy lately. Having just finished reading When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert with four dear friends, we've just ordered our next book: Generous Justice by Tim Keller. I also have at least four books on my nightstand that I'm paging through and several tabs open on my browser with case studies, theses, and articles on the topic. I simply can't get enough of others' commentary on the fields of missions, volunteerism, globalization, and international development.
How neat is it that my work and personal interests are the SAME? What a gift.
I wanted to share a list of things I'm checking out right now (some thanks to my brand spankin' new Nashville Library Card!):
- The Hole in Our Gospel - Richard Stearns
- Toxic Charity - Robert D. Lupton
- Walking with the Poor - Bryant L. Meyers
- The End of Poverty - Jeffrey Sachs
- The Bottom Billion - Paul Collier
- Serving with Eyes Wide Open - Livermore
- The White Man's Burden - William Easterly
- The Poor Will Be Glad - Peter Greer
- Cross-Cultural Servanthood - Duane Elmer
- Dead Aid - Dambisa Moyo
- This article on the "Short-Term Missionary vs Vacationary Debate"
- This study about international volunteer service by the Center for Social Development, one of the first comprehensive studies on this topic (focused on two agencies with which I've volunteered in the past - awesome, right?)
- This assessment about the impact of volunteers through a leading volunteer-sending organization
- This commentary from an advocate of short term missions and his blog
What are you reading? Any books or favorites that I'm missing from my list?
Hi Karen,
ReplyDeleteI love being giddy about books. Stephanie and I are pulling for you from afar. A coworker of mine just returned from this year's Great Lakes Initiative meeting with The Sacrifice of Africa: A Political Theology for Africa by Emmanuel Katongole, a Ugandan priest/Duke Div professor with a great writing style. http://www.amazon.com/Sacrifice-Africa-Political-Theology-Ekklesia/dp/0802862683. I've read the first chapter and jumped around a bit in other parts, and am so far really impressed.
Also of interest on your post below, from half of the husband & wife team that did our premarital counseling, www.beingknown.com.
- John
Dang, John already beat me to the comments. But I just wanted to say that this is a great list! I'm pinning it so that I can remember to read through some of these too.
ReplyDeleteI just finished Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, and while it wasn't as compelling as some others I have read about the Christian call to simple living and generous giving (Irresistible Revolution, anyone?), what I really liked was that it was by an older guy who has lived his life in a financially sacrificial way through kids and paying for college and retirement, so it made that lifestyle feel accessible, practical, and not crazy. Often it seems like people of our generation approach simple living as a phase for a few years while they are young, before they realize, oops, they probably do need a 401k. And they probably do, so it's nice to hear from someone who has navigated those choices already.
Also, it is killing me that I can't underline book titles in this comment.